**Rate the Music: Week 2!**
 

Back to it, I guess. Thanks to everyone who turned out for the premier last week. I wasn't sure how well this was going to be received, but I supposed we've struck something here. Last week's Green Hill Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog had a lot of love and enough moxie to earn a solid 7.72dB score. That makes it kind of playlist worthy. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it ends up stacking up to the rest of the pack.

Speaking of which, it's time for the next entrant from that pack. Like I said before, I was very appreciative of the turnout and participation. Namely, to two particular individuals who wasted no time dropping their thoughts and comments when this went up. Destor and Lock Jaw, you showed some love, I feel I should reciprocate. I know you're big RPG buffs, so why not tackle some classic RPG tune this time around? How about some One-Winged Angel from Final Fantasy 7 up in this bitch?!? Time to score and rant and rave and all that good stuff. Take a listen and let's hear what you have to say. Until next time!


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The most popularized song from the game but I can name 10 off the top of my head that I prefer. Judgment Day, Tifa Theme, Barret Theme, Underneath the Rotting Pizza, Crazy Motorcycle Chase, Opening/Bombing Mission, Flowers Blooming in the Church, Ahead On Our Way... ofc of course none of those have the spectacle that One Winged Angel brings with the chanting and the gravitas of the final boss, and the different iterations in Advent Children and the remakes. So now to me I care for it less because it's overplayed, but when I heard it for the first time I was probably freaking out. I remember singing it in elementary school with my friends. So it's good. But leave it alone people. Now if you put Dancing Mad on the other hand

Yeah, only thing it really has going against it is the overexposure....

I'll give it some thought and a proper relisten and vote later...

Listening to it now for the first time, I suppose I have to be honest in claiming ignorance as I'm sure listening to it out of context hurts it a tad. I've never played this game, or any Final Fantasy for that matter, so I'm bound to be missing out on the full gravity of the moment when this music plays. That said, it feels epic enough and certainly something I would imagine coming from a game like this.

Context definitely helps. The party thought they had defeated Sephiroth at the base of Meteror. The screen goes black, this music starts with a black screen. You slowly see the new big bad in his final form descend and then the real fight begins.

But also, "newer" versions that are higher quality than what PS1 could push at the time also help. This is easily one of the best main villain themes to have ever hit gaming.

FF6 is known for "Dancing Mad" and FF9 for "Dark Messenger". Both are great listens and make the "boss moment" pretty damn good.

Hell, FF X did a helluva job with the Jecht fight too, despite him not being the "final" boss there. It really seemed like it was, but he wasn't.

FF X was incredibly good

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FFX was naff. I don't want to watch a game I want to play it. No world map either.

I used to jam to the Trap mix version of this song.

This is an extremely difficult song to rate. Im not one who is enamored with FF7. Its a fine game. I have a good time playing it. But i dont love it the way other FF dorks do. Id rate 7 toward the middle of the series.

FF definitely has some bops but that isnt what FF7s OST excells at. Its score is great at setting tone. And to the end One Winged Angel absolutely captures the intensity of the moment and it really informs the audience how to feel in the moment and its obviously an iconic piece of music.

So despite me not loving FF7 and me actually finding Sephiroth to be honestly a very low tier villain Nobuo Uematsu's achievement here as a composer cant be slept on.

Its a 10.

Listening to it.... I think maybe I like other versions better... ones that kind of "compress" the choir parts so not as much "down time" in between the choir verses, which is what we are all here for....

Still a solid one for sure, gonna give it an 8.

Never listened.

Gave it a 9.

Besides its iconic status, its a really great boss theme song.

Don't really like the intro portion that much though but once it kicks into the chorus, the song turns great.

Damninator is def confirmed

What Destor says is very true. AFAIK One Winged Angel doesnt incorporate any motifs from the rest of the soundtrack which adds to the shock & awe of the spectacle and makes it feel like it truly came out of nowhere. It is such a momentous moment.

Dancing Mad is the best final boss theme of all time. Creating a piece of that complexity with separate movements on the SNES hardware has been equated to painting the Sistine Chapel with crayons.

"Dark Messenger" is the penultimate boss theme of FF9 IIRC. The actual final boss moment in FF9, which most people forget, is pretty interesting. It's against an enemy you've barely heard of. People complain about that but you need some context - the game is essentially a "gaiden" composed of homages/references to the earlier FF games as a sendoff before to "traditional" FF before the jump to PS2. The boss appearing in this way is another one of those references; the Cloud of Darkness from FF3 appears in pretty much the same way. There are some similarities between the themes

I legitimately thought the opening/Final Boss theme in FFX was Motorhead when I first heard it

Avoid Persona and Metal Gear Solid then. I know FFX was advertised as the "cinematic RPG" when it came out but it's hardly that. The real issues with the game are the voice acting and the pacing slowing to a crawl every time the narrative starts to get good. The combat is really satisfying and the story is pretty creative, plus it's set in a very intereting world inspired by Asian culture. All this is a testament to how bad the voice acting is

What can I say, never been a fan of the FF series and as such have never played any of the games. In fact, the only time I ever saw one of the games in action was FF8 in 1999, one night on watch duty during lights out, whilst awaiting my discharge from the U.S. Army. This guy I was on watch duty with had bought a PS1 and copy of FF8 in the PX store. He was pretty pissed at me at the end of our shift when it was time for the next 2 guys to relieve us because the game had bored me so much it put me to sleep, and we were not to fall asleep on watch duty under any circumstances. Thank FUCK the Sergeant in charge that night didn’t catch me.

Had to edit the final score for Green Hill Zone. I've got you covered, iNATOR.